Credit, Caroline Wagner/CBC
Vera Sommerfeld eagerly awaited the birth of two-month-old Callie Marsh, who ushered in the sixth generation of women in her family.
Vera Sommerfeld, a Canadian from Lethbridge, will be hosting special Christmas and New Year parties this year.
At 96, she celebrates the last birth of her family: a little girl who marks the sixth generation of living women in her family.
Callie Marsh was born in October.
“It’s wonderful,” Vera told Canadian broadcaster CBC.
“I couldn’t wait for this baby.”
Four women in the family live in Lethbridge, a city in the province of Alberta. And all five, now with the baby, meet once a month.
Credit, Caroline Wagner/CBC
Vera Sommerfeld, 96, pictured with her adult descendants and sixth-generation baby Callie
“I can’t even describe (how much I love her). She’s just a beautiful girl. I love her so much,” he said.
Callie’s mother, Alisa Marsh, is 20 years old. The baby’s grandmother, Amanda Cormier, is 39 years old and Grace Couturier, her great-grandmother, is 59 years old.
Gwen Shaw, Callie’s great-great-grandmother, is 75 years old.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, an American family that reached seven living generations in 1989 holds this type of record.
But reaching six generations is also extremely rare – and even more so when you take into account that they are all women.
Amanda Cormier told CBC she always thought she was too young to be a grandmother, at just 39 years old.
“But now that she’s here, I wouldn’t change a thing!”
Alisa Marsh said having so many mother figures in the family was “wonderful”.
“They visit me all the time,” says the young mother, laughing.
Marsh married in June 2015 and says her great-great-grandmother quickly began to wonder “when would we give her the sixth generation.”
She told the BBC that she hoped to have more children and also wanted her various ancestors to be there when Callie’s sisters or brothers were born.
Gwen Shaw, Vera’s daughter, said the family had a long life thanks to good genes. But Vera prefers to say that, after almost a century of life, the cause could be her favorite drink: rum and soda.
Credit, Caroline Wagner/CBC
Grace Couturier, 59, became a great-grandmother before retiring
“She drinks it every day,” Alisa confirmed.
“My grandmother (Sommerfeld) said the only thing that kept her alive all this time was waiting for this baby to be born. Now she’s going to stay alive because the baby is here,” Grace said Couturier, great-grandmother, in the local newspaper Lethbridge Herald.
“It’s incredible. It’s absolutely incredible that my grandmother is still here to see my granddaughter have her first daughter,” he added.
“Prone to fits of apathy. Beer evangelist. Incurable coffeeaholic. Internet expert.”
